Alpine swifts are birds that can do something few other birds can: remain in flight for up to six months at a time.
Truly, they never land. They eat on wing, drink on wing, and for their first two or three years of life, don’t nest.
They remain caught in the updraft, even sleeping on wing. If they lose the wind under their wings, they will tumble to the ground and risk impending death.
How as Christians can we remain caught in the updraft?
John 3:16, that oh-so-familiar verse, tells us:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This is the source of our updraft. God’s love lifts us above the turmoil of everyday living, and he keeps us in daily flight. As long as we trust in him, we will never fall from the sky.
John 10:30 tells us:
“I and the Father are one.”
If we can find our faith in Jesus, we can have faith in God, for there is no difference. When we accept Jesus as our savior, we have invited God to be our continual gust of spiritual upwelling, and we need never touch land again.
John 1:18 tells us:
“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”
Naysayers will tell us we cannot soar on wing, because there is nothing to hold us up. Yet, we cannot see the air beneath the Alpine swift’s wing, only the effects of what it does. God is the same. We cannot see him, only the effects of what he does, and what he does is keep us aloft, always and ever closer to him.
John 1:14 tells us:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
God understands us more than we think. He and Jesus are one, and Jesus came to earth to live as flesh that he might know us as we are. Jesus also had to remain caught in the updrafts of his Father’s love, just as we do, so that he could bring us redemption for our souls. He did this against the taunts of his own people turned against him, the temptations of the devil at his lowest points, and a horrifying death many of us cannot even imagine.
How does the Alpine swift manage its amazing feat? It just leaps. It doesn’t look at the rocks far below and consider whether it should. It just does it.
Let’s leap toward God, and when we trust in him, we will become caught in the updraft of his love.
Jesus lifts us up, and we cannot fall as long as we trust in him.
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